Bandai Namco Debuts Pac-Man’s Pixel Bash At Bowl Expo ’18

If you’ve been around the arcade business for the past couple of decades, then you likely are familiar with Bandai Namco’s re-issues of select classic arcade games in a proper arcade cabinet format. These have included the “Class Of ’81“, Pac-Man 25th Anniversary, and most recently, Pac-Man’s Arcade Party. The latter was the most complete release, featuring 12 or 13 classics (Ms. Pac-Man could not be included on the coin-op commercial versions for legal reasons) but many were disappointed in the lack of additions to that package, especially where the likes of Arcade Legends 3 offers up to 135 games.

Enter in Pac-Man’s Pixel Bash, the latest classic compilation release by Bandai Namco Amusements. While it doesn’t correspond to a five-year anniversary, it does address the number of games issue, offering the most Namco classics inside of a cabinet release seen to date. The classics that are gracing this model number at 31 and include many classics that I never thought I’d see officially recognized again as there are some obscurities:

All of these are Namco titles so with Namco being the manufacturer, there is no need to worry about legalities and licensing. So far Namco has only unveiled this coin-op model; I would not be surprised if there is a non-coin model that comes along with Ms. Pac-Man.

Pac-Man’s Pixel Bash will be at the International Bowl Expo in Las Vegas that starts tomorrow. I will be there to check it out and provide more info!

I’m pretty excited about this. I run a few arcade and Barcade locations. Right now I have 3 locations with Pac-Mans Arcade Party cabinets in them. The true classics are starting to get harder and harder to find in good condition and lets face it, most of the electronics inside them are pushing 40 years old at this point. These things were never designed to last this long.

This did get me to thinking though, why is Namco still the only one doing this? I know most of the other heyday greats have folded, but there are still a few around.

Sega for instance. They are still hot and heavy in the arcade market. They have a pretty solid stable of classics to their name. They could easily put one of these together and they would surely sell. Especially with the ever growing Barcade industry that so lends itself to classic games by the age demographic it draws.

If I really want to dream, Sega does have a decent relationship with Nintendo for arcade stuff right now (Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games) Why not partner with Nintendo again for a Nintendo classic cabinet?

I’ve wondered the same thing, specifically about Sega. Their 80s library in particular could make for a compelling joystick unit like this (or even a classic multi-game racer – might as well play to the strengths). I suppose they don’t see the money in it although back when I sold arcade machines for a living, my top sellers to homes were Pac-Man compilation games (Arcade Party but also the Class of ’81), Arcade Legends 2 or 3, Golden Tee and Big Buck. Especially when Christmas time rolled around, selling anything Pac-Man was a breeze.

I would occasionally get someone asking where the games were for other companies but Namco makes the only licensed title that is allowed for coin-op. Arcade Legends 3 hasn’t allowed it but that would bring Atari, Taito, Data East, some Capcom and some Midway to the table. Where Raw Thrills has shown their aptitude for licensing, I would imagine that it wouldn’t break a sweat for something like it. But here we are and only Namco sees it as an opportunity :/

This has been something I try to discuss on the forums that one advantage people aren’t seeing when it comes to non-native resolutions is the displays own filtering being able to kick in and recalibrate the games to look more akin with their crt counterparts. It still does need scanlinrs though as we did a lot of research on how it keeps the graphics looking proper as they should. Had games been 480p, then there wouldn’t be any real need for them. They’re still necessary for hiding artifacts and imperfections.

It just make me so mad that there’s still developers who don’t pay any heed to this and they’re the reason why our hobby is being ruined to begin with. Just look at all the port jobs capcom did over the years and we’re having to do all kinds of programming and mod work just to fix their $#&@!